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Heart rescue

Posted
December 4, 2013

Emergency responder aims to improve the odds for those who experience sudden cardiac arrest

Because he’s hardwired to
help, Robert Eddy ’74, a philanthropist
and volunteer Sherburne County
Sheriff’s deputy, former firefighter,
and EMT, has made it his life’s mission
to bring more people back to life
after sudden cardiac arrest.

“I grew up in a family that focused
on community service,” Eddy says
from his home in Big Lake, Minn. “My
mother was a nurse. My father was a
firefighter. My grandfather was the
police chief and the fire chief.”

So it only made sense that Eddy
would follow in his family’s footsteps.
But the now-retired telecommunications
executive’s volunteerism has been flavored by
a nagging sense that more could be done to save
people whose hearts have suddenly stopped.

While cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has
saved countless lives, Eddy knows firsthand that it is
imperfect: “In my role as an emergency responder,
I’ve had to learn — and use — CPR several times,” he
says. In cases of sudden cardiac arrest, he adds,
“My personal record is 0-4.” Though that number
should not feel surprising — the American Heart
Association reports that less than 8 percent of
people who experience cardiac arrest outside
a hospital survive — for the results-oriented Eddy,
such a lopsided record is not acceptable.

This year, Eddy decided to do something
about it. He donated $2 million to the University
of Minnesota to create the R. K. Eddy Endowed
Chair in Cardiovascular Resuscitation, designed
to support research dedicated to improving cardiac
arrest survival rates.

“This just seemed to fit well for me,” Eddy says.
“It was something I had an interest in, and I believe
that there are scientists at the University who really
have the potential to make significant progress in
this research. It’s an exciting opportunity.”

Safeguarding the heart

One of the scientists is the University’s Demetri
Yannopoulos, M.D., associate professor of
medicine, research director of interventional
cardiology, and director of the Minnesota Resuscitation
Consortium. He is evaluating novel therapies
that may extend survival rates for victims of
sudden cardiac arrest by protecting the heart
and brain from damage created by the absence of
blood flow and oxygen delivery during the arrest —
as well as the damage caused by lifesaving CPR
and resuscitation efforts.

Sudden cardiac arrest damages heart tissue
because it restricts or eliminates blood and oxygen
flow to the body. Traditional resuscitation efforts
like CPR, although necessary to save lives, can also
damage tissue, because they forcefully push blood
and oxygen to the heart and vital organs. This
damage is called reperfusion injury.

Yannopoulos is seeking ways to minimize or
avoid that damage. “My colleagues and I are
trying to identify ways to create a protective
barrier around the cells of vital organs before the
injury occurs and immediately at the initiation of
resuscitation efforts,” he explains.

One promising approach involves collaboration
with Joseph Metzger, Ph.D., chair of
the Department of Integrative Biology and
Physiology, and Frank Bates, Ph.D., Regents
Professor and head of the Department of
Chemical Engineering and Materials Science,
on a molecular “Band-Aid” designed to keep
cell membranes from leaking during heart
attacks and cardiac arrest.

“Clinicians have gotten really good at
helping humans survive their first heart
attack,” Metzger says. “But they’ve now set
themselves up for the cycle of heart failure.
When tissue is damaged during resuscitation,
the squeezing action of the heart gets weaker
and weaker. So we need to develop more
ways to safeguard the heart.”

Bright future

Eddy is particularly excited about a major
breakthrough spearheaded by Yannopoulos
and his team. In research trials, they have
been able to resuscitate a pig that has had no
heartbeat for up to 18 minutes (until recently,
scientists believed resuscitation was impossible
after 10 to 12 minutes). To achieve such
results, the scientists employ a series of
pauses in compressions and a dose of inhaled
anesthetic within the first three minutes of
CPR followed by administration of the
molecular Band-Aid to protect cell
membranes from breakdown.

Those results, Yannopoulos adds, have
“enormous implications in the field.”

Will the research one day markedly
reduce fatality rates for people experiencing
sudden cardiac arrest? That’s the goal,
and that’s what excites Robert Eddy.

“Treatments are advancing rapidly,” Eddy
says. “Awareness is growing. I believe the day
will come when there will be a Trivial Pursuit
question that asks, ‘When was the last day
someone in the United States died of [sudden
cardiac arrest]?’ And we’ll get to say, ‘It was
those guys at the University of Minnesota
who figured this out.’”

By Andy Steiner

To learn more about supporting resuscitation
research at the University of Minnesota, please
contact Amanda Storm Schuster at aschuste@umn.edu or 612-626-2475.

A bold goal

About 300,000 people in the United States experience
sudden cardiac arrest outside of hospitals every year — and
only 8 percent survive. The U’s Demetri Yannopoulos, M.D.,
leads an effort to improve that dire survival statistic by at
least 50 percent in five years through the HeartRescue
Project. Learn more at www.heartrescueproject.com.